The XP2 Spirit is a 3G-enabled cellphone designed to be fully rugged and yet still sporting a decent range of features.

First up, it’s octagonal (not equilateral, that would look rather odd) which is supposed to help it stand up better to being dropped.

It’s also waterproof, having an outer shell made from hardened rubber, fibre glass and nylon, and a GORE-TEX covered speaker.

Other features include a 3MP camera, two inch high-resolution (QVGA) display (with 1.5mm of Gorilla glass protection), JAVA application support, multimedia player, FM radio, email and web browser, Bluetooth but no Wi-Fi. It runs on the BREW operating system.

If rugged really is your thing (I’d personally rather stick a case on a better smartphone, but each to their own) then it will be available in Europe from next month.

Product page

A recent survey by Vodafone found that one in five Brits have missed an important event or occasion because of a lack of signal, while one in fifty would even consider moving house to get a better cellphone signal indoors.

Many people now rely on their mobile phone, with some no longer having a fixed line phone.

For anyone who craves a better indoor signal, Vodafone has launched its Sure Signal box. Simply put, it plugs into a home broadband line and then allows up to four mobile phones to be used at once (32 can be registered to a single box).

Even those who can get an EDGE signal may not be able to access the high speed 3G network, so Sure Signal also improves speed.

A one-off payment from £50 (about $80) gets Vodafone customers the box, which is about the same size as the average home router.

Sure Signal

Oh… rumors have said that this service will be available in a few hours… so watch out for it!